January 7, 2013
Leaving Monterey we decided to travel along the coast Highway 1. What an awesome drive!! It was hard to pass up a turnout. The coastline rivals the most scenic parts of the Oregon coastline. Stopping often, we took photo after photo.
We stopped at the Jane Pfiffer Burns State Park and hiked the 1/4 mile to McWay Falls. It falls onto a secluded and inaccessible beach at the base of the cliffs. It's a very beautiful cove with a lot of history. Apparently, in the 1800's a millionaire built a house on the hillside overlooking the cove and Pacific Ocean. The only thing remaining of the house is most of the foundation.
We stopped often along Highway 1 to take pictures and soak in the Big Sur. The highway has been damaged by rock slides over the years. There were two areas where half the road had fallen into the sea. Traffic was funneled down to one lane and construction was underway to make repairs.
Stopping again at another wayside, we observed several hundred Elephant Seals, some weighing two to three thousand pounds or more, laying around on the beach. They had been to sea for several months eating all they could, putting on the pounds so they could R & R on this beach for 3 or 4 months, have babies, mate and the big males live the life of a Sultan. Then it's back out to sea for the 1700+ herd of Seals. It was pretty awesome to see them!
We had passed up going to the Aquarium in Monterey because we had a long way to go to Solvang, CA for our next stop. But as we thought about it, we got to see a Pod of spouting Whales along the Big Sur, the huge California Condor, a herd of Deer, hundreds of Seals, and besides the Squirrel, I can't remember the others!
It's not French, so life is good!
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